The Finished Boat Sail Ventures Ltd |
The Express 40 is an Owen Clarke designed Class 40 yacht.
It's being built in Cowes by Sail Ventures Ltd based in Cowes. With her roots in the Open 50 and
60 Classes the Express 40 is designed as a seriously fast, rugged, offshore race boat for sailing
double or single handed. Complying with the Class 40 rules she is eligible to race in the most
biggest offshore races such as the Route du Rum, the OSTAR, the Transat Jaques Vabre and of course
the new round the world race - the Global Ocean Challenge.
Paul Metcalf the offshore racer behind Sail Ventures and the Express 40 explains why he chose
Harken equipment: "The Express 40 is built for the rigors of offshore, short handed racing so
the gear just has to be top quality. When double or single handed you rely even more heavily on
your equipment. That's why Harken had to be the first choice for the deck equipment. From both
personal experience and the happy recommendations of others I knew it was the way to go.
Working closely with Sam Bourne of Harken UK we went through quite a few iterations of equipment
looking for the right combination of weight, strength and ease of use. One particular example
of this was the traveler. We had received feed back from other Class 40 yachts that the traveler
could be hard work when fully loaded - the boat carries a 75m2 mainsail. We looked at increasing
the purchase and using different systems but in the end went for a beefed up 5000 series CB
traveler car running on BB CB High Beam Track to ensure that the load was spread and the system
remained responsive at all times."
The Express 40 policy of top quality in design, build and equipment seems to be popular - with
six boats ordered even before the first one has hit the water Harken UK look forward to a long
and rewarding partnership with Sail Ventures and their Express 40.
The following selection of images takes you through the stages of the boats production.
(Cick on image for larger image)
1. CAD rendering from aft |
2. CAD rendering from above
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3. Flat pack of pre-cut frames - a full size boat-shaped jigsaw puzzle
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4. Framing up - erecting the frames on the mould base
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5. Full set of frames set up on the base - it now looks like a hull shape!
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6. Battening the frame with wooden battens to take the mould skin
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7. Skinning the mould with thin plywood strips
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8. Mould skinned - note how wide and flat bottomed she is, along with a fairly serious chine
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9. Fairing the mould - its gotta be real smooooooth... |
10. Rendering of the finished boat. |
Links:
Website: www.express40.com
Copyright© 2008 Harken, Inc. All rights reserved
